Recently Bill Nye and Ken Ham had a debate regarding the validity of evolution and creationism. This debate mixed with the recent discovery of the earliest known human footprints outside Africa is leading a big question to arise: How does carbon dating work? Well, Trace did some digging and is here to tell you all about carbon dating and other ways we can know the age of an object or fossil.I have been describing this process for a decade and a half, but I'm glad I can show my students instead of just telling them.
Scientists recently found the oldest thing on Earth, a zircon crystal, and it dates back to 4.4 billion years ago! Carbon dating is a helpful tool in order to date old things, but it's limited. Trace is joined by Elise Andrew from I F***king Love Science to talk about how exactly scientists were able to find the oldest thing on earth.While I gained something from these videos, I also lost something. They ended up replacing the TED Talk "Building a dinosaur from a chicken" that I have embedded in Weekly roundup and sustainability news from national commercial sources for the week ending June 11, 2011, which was fun, but didn't bear directly on geology. I will still show it to my environmental science students when I finish my evolution lecture. It's still quite on topic for that class.
[O]ne of the stations down the street advanced first and is now selling for $3.59, exactly what I expected when I expected it. Meanwhile, the corner station kept its price at $3.48.The corner station raised its price today, but not to $3.59. Oh, no, it was not content to see the rest of the neighborhood outlets. It had to raise the stakes by increasing its price to $3.79. That matched its high from a little over a year ago and actually put its price higher than a year ago for the first time this year, if not for the past four months. Good thing I filled up last night!
Right now, enjoy the gas war.I did, as I filled up at the corner station while I had the chance to do so. I expect its price to rise in the morning. Meanwhile, I'll have a full tank.
Today, the corner station raised its price to $3.69 for regular, so they made the first half of my prediction right a few days early. I'm also sure that the price will drop, but it might go lower than the $3.59 I expected. The response of the three stations down the street was not to raise prices to $3.55 or $3.59 and then wait for the corner station to drop to $3.65 and then $3.59. No, they all lowered their prices a penny this afternoon to $3.48. That's a surprise, and it makes me think that the corner station might return to $3.49 this weekend after finding themselves out in No Man's Land.Monday, it retreated all the way and then some, as it matched the rest at $3.48. That's one prediction that worked out. What about the next one?
The next time the corner station raises prices, they likely will stick and the neighborhood price will settle between $3.55 and $3.59 inclusive. That's next week.This looks like it will come to pass, but not the usual way with the corner station raising prices first. Instead, one of the stations down the street advanced first and is now selling for $3.59, exactly what I expected when I expected it. Meanwhile, the corner station kept its price at $3.48.
Right now, enjoy the gas war.I did, as I filled up at the corner station while I had the chance to do so. I expect its price to rise in the morning. Meanwhile, I'll have a full tank.
Attorney General Greg Abbott’s lead has widened over gubernatorial challenger state Sen. Wendy Davis, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.There is more at the link, plus the HREF="http://www.texastribune.org/2014/02/24/uttt-poll-abbott-holds-11-point-lead-over-davis/">Texas Tribune
If the election for Texas governor were held today, Abbott would have an 11-point lead over Davis, 47 to 36 percent, with 17 percent undecided. In last November’s poll Abbott had a 6-point lead over Davis, with 25 percent responding as undecided.
When asked if the 2014 election for lieutenant governor were held today, respondents preferred any of the four GOP candidates—including frontrunners David Dewhurst and Dan Patrick—over Democrat Leticia Van de Putte by margins ranging from 9 to 12 points.
The statewide poll, conducted Feb. 7-17, surveyed 1,200 registered Texas voters and had a margin of error of 3.28 percentage points.
Idina Menzel stops by the Tonight Show Music Room to perform the Oscar-winning song "Let It Go" from Disney's "Frozen."A "Frozen" song for a freezing night; how appropriate. Stay warm, everyone!
Today, NASA announced a breakthrough addition to the catalog of new planets. Researchers using Kepler have confirmed 715 new worlds, almost quadrupling the number of planets previously confirmed by the planet-hunting spacecraft. Some of the new worlds are similar in size to Earth and orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars.Space.com also has an article: Population of Known Alien Planets Nearly Doubles as NASA Discovers 715 New Worlds by Mike Wall, Senior Writer, on February 26, 2014 01:01pm ET.
NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered more than 700 new exoplanets, nearly doubling the current number of confirmed alien worlds.DarkSyde on Daily Kos also wrote about the discovery in This week in science: All these dirty worlds are yours.
The 715 newfound planets, which scientists announced today (Feb. 26), boost the total alien-world tally to between 1,500 and 1,800, depending on which of the five main extrasolar planet discovery catalogs is used. The Kepler mission is responsible for more than half of these finds, hauling in 961 exoplanets to date, with thousands more candidates awaiting confirmation by follow-up investigations.
"This is the largest windfall of planets — not exoplanet candidates, mind you, but actually validated exoplanets — that's ever been announced at one time," Douglas Hudgins, exoplanet exploration program scientist at NASA's Astrophysics Division in Washington, told reporters today.
It might win Editing, but it's against all the very best films of last year. Cuaron did win Best Director at the Golden Globes, so I think he'll do it again here. The Cinematography was stunning, so I think it has a good chance.Again, "Gravity" won all three, for a total of seven Oscars, the most of any film at last night's awards. Just the same, two awards got away.
Finally, Sandra Bullock put in a great performance, but she will not beat Cate Blanchett for "Blue Jasmine." Also, "Gravity" may not even be the best science fiction film nominated. "Her" might be. Neither of them will win for Best Picture. I expect "12 Years a Slave" will repeat its win from the Golden Globes.Both of my predictions came to pass. Blanchett and "12 Years a Slave" won their categories.
Trace talks with astronaut Mike Massimino to find out what would really happen if there was a catastrophic collision in space. Did the filmmakers of the highly anticipated film "Gravity" get it right? You might be surprised by what Mike has to say.And that's just the U.S. spacecraft and I.S.S. As far as I can tell, the accuracy extends to the Soyuz and Shenzhou spacecraft as well. I'll give one anecdote from our viewing: when Sandra Bullock's character was hurtling to Earth, my wife said "I hope she hits water." I told her that wouldn't be a good thing to do, as the Russian and Chinese capsules are designed to return to dry land, not water as U.S. spacecraft do. I won't spoil the readers, but I will say that the rescue vehicle eventually did perform down to my expectations.
